CQT's Steven Touzard lauded in list of Asia-Pacific’s top young innovators

Steven is named a pioneer in MIT Technology Review’s “Innovators under 35” for his research on quantum error correction and quantum networking. 

CQT Principal Investigator Steven Touzard has made the 2022 edition of MIT Technology Review’s “Innovators under 35” list for the Asia-Pacific region. Announced on 14 November 2022, the list recognises 35 top talents in the region.  

Awardees are selected on the criteria that they “have achieved innovative breakthroughs or pioneering achievements in cutting-edge technology fields in the past one or two years which might solve global problems and make contributions to socioeconomic and sustainable developments of Asia Pacific region.” 

Steven says, “I am honoured to be on the list of Innovators under 35 APAC. Although such awards always bring one name forward, it must be seen as a recognition of the wonderful collective work, enabled by the brilliant people I’ve had the chance to work with.” 

Steven is named a pioneer for his work on quantum error correction and quantum networking. Quantum error correction manages noise that affects the qubits in quantum computers and is an important ingredient to realise the computational power of quantum devices. Earlier in his career, he demonstrated techniques that led to noise suppression in the so-called cat qubits and GKP qubits.

As a Principal Investigator at CQT since July 2022, Steven is leading a group to build quantum networks, with the goal of connecting superconducting qubits with telecom photons. This could simultaneously offer a way to scale quantum computers towards performing useful tasks, a way to transmit un-hackable information, and a way to improve sensing by connecting quantum sensors. The project is supported by a fellowship from Singapore’s National Research Foundation.  

Steven is co-appointed as a Presidential Young Professor at the NUS Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the College of Design and Engineering and the Department of Physics in the Faculty of Science. He is also a scientist at MajuLab, a French international research laboratory in quantum technologies hosted in Singapore.  

He is one of four NUS researchers spotlighted in the 2022 “Innovators under 35” list. The other three are Assistant Professor Hou Yi, an expert on solar cells, Assistant Professor Liu Yuxin, who is developing next-generation bioelectronics and neurotechnology, and Assistant Professor Lum Yanwei, who does research on carbon conversion technology. 

CQT researchers have been spotlighted by these awards in other years too. Previous winners include Yvonne Gao, now a Principal Investigator, who was named one of the Innovators under 35 (Asia Pacific) in 2019; Robert Bedington who received the award as a CQT Senior Research Fellow in 2018 and is now co-founder and CTO of the quantum networks startup SpeQtral; and Joe Fitzsimons, a CQT Principal Investigator when he was recognised in 2015 and now founder and CEO of the quantum software startup Horizon Quantum Computing.

This article is adapted from a news highlight by NUS: https://news.nus.edu.sg/outstanding-young-nus-scientists-lauded-in-list-of-apac-luminaries/